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Federal Reserve officials said a “very strong” economy warranted continued increases in their benchmark policy rate while citing an escalating trade war and emerging-market turmoil as risks to growth.

“They are pretty confident in their baseline outlook” and will stick to their plan of continuing to raise interest rates, said Harm Bandholz, chief US economist at UniCredit Bank AG. “Trade is the gorilla in the room and nobody knows how bad” the mounting dispute could be for businesses.

US central bankers are trying to keep the economy on a sustainable path as growth gets a boost from tax cuts and additional government spending. Minutes of the Fed’s June 12-13 meeting released Thursday showed officials...